I have been working at Enaxis Consulting full-time (More than 3 years)

Recommends

Neutral Outlook

Approves of CEO

Recommends

Neutral Outlook

Approves of CEO

Pros

Despite being a smaller firm compared to typical IT or management consulting firms, Enaxis conducts itself as a large, established firm through its service offerings and client portfolio. There is good opportunity for career advancement through gaining experience and developing skills on client engagements, training and company-sponsored certification courses, and firm development (business development, writing white papers, etc.). Good work-life balance and focus on working hard, but understanding that everyone has a life, friends and family outside of work.

Cons

Senior Team and performance managers can engage their teams more to help ensure their goals are being achieved and provide guidance for career advancement.

Advice to Management

Through continued growth, maintain what has made Enaxis a great place to work -- the family atmosphere.

Small firm but with good client base especially in the oil and gas industry. The firm has some key super majors of oil and gas industry as clients with good stability. Atmosphere is very good and the people are even better - everyone encourages everyone right from consultant level to partner, there is a lot of encouragement and praise especially if you are good on the job. You can also seek help and guidance from other colleagues who are always ready to support, friendly and easy to talk to. Strong peer networking is also encouraged via monthly happy hour sessions and other platforms. The partners and leadership team are quite easy to talk to and relate with and the firm is also willing to support your career or goal development activities (sometimes financially if required) Training is taken seriously and people are encouraged to get professional certifications in their chosen career paths while internal trainings are also organized very frequently.

Cons

As expected with small firms, a lot of focus is on business development activities, to retain current clients and grow new ones so sometimes this focus may get in the way of improving employee engagement but this is constantly being addressed

Advice to Management

Continue to operate 'open door' and seek constant feedback from employees to ensure the firm is consistently addressing employee engagement issues. Focus on retaining the current staff that you have as they are very good people with the right attitude and mindset

I quit my previous consulting job because I had zero work-life balance. I got that at Enaxis. I have been at Enaxis for just over a year. In the beginning, I did wonder why I had quit my previous organization, but my colleagues at Enaxis have made this a very good place to work. Everyone is open, and helpful. I have not had to work long hours day in and day out (there are always those exception, deadline days. But I might have had one or two of these in the past year, as opposed to staying late all day every day like other consulting companies expect). I have never worked at a small firm, so this transparency and openness, having the ability to talk to the CEOs and senior management is new to me. And I must say, I like it very much. All the Partners are very approachable, the senior leadership team is helpful. I have had a very good experience with the firm this past year. If you work hard, and ask for opportunities that you think you can handle, management is definitely open to the possibilities. Management has to have faith in you, and your abilities. If you can show them what you can do, then the world is yours for the taking.

Cons

As with any smaller company, Enaxis has a lower pay scale and benefits, compared to the Big 4. They cannot afford to pay you like the Big 4, but they do have work-life balance, and minimal travel which are the main complaints of folks working in the Big 4 companies anyways. Being a small company, the back office support had been lacking. But management has been working hard at getting this situation rectified. They have already added a few people to the back-office staff. Training, management, career path is not very well defined. But once again, management is working on fixing this situation. Hopefully, we will see some updates soon.

Advice to Management

As the firm grows, we are going to have to develop more defined, standard career paths. More structured training and expectation from each level within the firm. We need to start developing this structure if we hope to keep growing in the coming years.

I have been working at Enaxis Consulting full-time (More than 8 years)

Doesn't Recommend

Negative Outlook

Disapproves of CEO

Doesn't Recommend

Negative Outlook

Disapproves of CEO

Pros

Great place if you want to work hard to make someone else rich (staff you at many times what you'll be paid) (Only) one of the partners had senior experience at another firm and had something to teach others

Cons

Hypocritical--say the right things but really don't care how you are treated by managers, partners, and clients Effort to move to practices won't work because there's no real depth to the firm's knowledge Awful low-resolution laptops--tough on the eyes if you need to use them for a long time

Advice to Management

Read your own list of values and start following them and you'll get the loyalty you keep demanding Improve pay to be competitive with real consulting firms and you'll get better people

Enaxis Consulting Response

Apr 23, 2015 – Talent Director

Thank you for your input, since you have been at Enaxis for 8 years, what has kept you here (since you have nothing good to say)? :)

Not bad place for a career transition, especially from the high travel life of management consulting firms If you're a "rah rah" for the firm type, you will get better reviews Expect only a 45-50 hour work week (40 for the client and 5-10 for the firm) but expect more work if you take vacations to make up for the time off (hours often limited since most clients don't allow billing over 40 hrs per week) Very few people have to travel If you have a role where you can bill beyond 40 hrs/week, you're a hero Some enjoyable happy hours and social events

Cons

Management not looking for feedback on anything of significance (all real decisions made by top two people behind closed doors) Perks and bonuses are minimal compared to larger firms Very few roles where you can demonstration what you can do--most client work is staffing positions where you are doing change mgmt. (presentations) or project management directly working for client personnel and evaluations are based on keeping the client person happy and hours billed No one wants to hear any real feedback from the staff Partners will not protect staff from abusive behavior by clients Very, very few (2?) repeat clients Training materials are poor and there are not individual training plans for everyone Senior managers and partners are always talking about each other behind their backs

Advice to Management

Make it a policy that it will no longer be tolerated for manager, partners, and clients to yell at staff Stop trying to "spin" to employees and present honestly about the challenges the firm faces in finding sustainable growth

Firm is more of an IT staffing than a consulting firm so the hours are not as long as at the big consulting firms (but the pay and career opportunities are way lower also) Titles are inflated so if you were a sr. consultant at a big firm, you can easily get a manager title here (though Managers don't "manage" projects, they just have a higher bill rate) Firm likes to have people in the office on Fridays

Cons

Very little deep I.T. or industry expertise in the firm--no one to learn new skills from if you already have a strong background Selling mostly "bodies" and not "projects" to clients No path to being a "true" partner, i.e. no one can advance to the level of ownership and control of the 2 founders unlike in a management consulting firm; lots of backbiting and talking about each other at the senior levels--hierarchical, not collegial Watch out on Glassdoor, seems like they let the companies pick which reviews are shown first as "popular"

Advice to Management

Stop "strongly encouraging" employees to talk up the company and make only positive comments about the firm; accept criticism

Enaxis Consulting Response

Apr 23, 2015 – Talent Director

Thank you for your input, our expertise and business model is demonstrated by our growth and client list.

Easy to get hired Location is outside of downtown with good parking and many nearby restaurants A few colleagues are very nice and helpful

Cons

Presents itself as way more than it is--most of what they have done and do is very basic I.T. staffing No real Oil & Gas experience--Owner insisted a pumpjack was really a derrick and couldn't believe he was wrong Training, development, benefits are marginal compared to the major consulting firms

Advice to Management

Honestly describe the work that they may do to applicants Tone down the owners' egos and start listening to the staff

They pay for expensive office space to have social Fridays and as a base for social (drinking) events Definitely a place if you like to attend every drinking event they put on Great place to get staffed in project mgmt. in I.T. at Chevron

Cons

Owners do not apply their "core values" to themselves--they love employees to call them "brilliant" and support their ego--quick to threaten if you don't line up with their views They pressure employees to provide favorable reviews on the firm (many current employees, including myself, don't feel comfortable providing an honest view of the firm to candidates) Most of the profits go to the owners and their few favorites

Advice to Management

Provide an ability for staff to judge the owners according to the core values Allow dissent Broaden the client base and get clients to stick with the firm

Having been at both larger and smaller consulting firms, I find that Enaxis is the right balance between the two. It has the right infrastructure to allow consultants to focus on their jobs, while presenting a wide range of growth opportunities. The diverse backgrounds and skill-sets present at Enaxis mean that we really can leverage each others' knowledge when needed. Additionally, there is a real focus on work life balance and ensuring that the employees don't burn out.

Cons

As the firm continues to grow, ensuring that the latest information is readily available to employees will be key to effective scaling. Additionally, building the necessary structures to continue to grow and mature consultants in a manner beneficial to the employee and the firm will be required to build the next set of Enaxis consultants.

Advice to Management

Over the past year, we've done a good job making investments in the back office that allow for a more streamlined work environment. The company culture is excellent; as we grow we need to make sure we keep the maintenance of the company culture a focus.

The salary level is not that of top firms...but that's to be expected to a certain degree, considering the work/life balance emphasis and low travel. Visibility into progress towards short/long-term goals within the firm, drivers behind bonus determination, and communication from Senior Team to rest of firm can be lacking at times.

Advice to Management

For attrition reduction, consider more visibility and direct communication about bonus expectations and goals process. When the firm does well, we should all do well.